Chicken rental helps fight against poverty

In Shaanxi province, one man's rent-a-chicken business has helped hundreds of rural families cast off poverty. Zhang Chunpu's program is a free loan of chickens to farmers who then make money by selling the free-range eggs back to Zhang's cooperative.

Over the past decade, rent-a-chicken has helped more than 800 households in Yan'an city's Yanchang county, who previously survived on an annual per capita income of less than 2,300 yuan ($335).

The idea came to Zhang, 53, by accident. In 2003, he saw profits from selling healthy eggs and acquired 6,000 chickens.